Arrow season 8: Emily Bett Rickards’ message & Felicity Smoak’s importance
The image below from star Emily Bett Rickards’ Instagram page just serves as another reminder of how close the cast came to be over these past several years, and how much they will likely miss each other. They’ve still got another ten episodes left beyond this current run, so the more emotional goodbyes are coming. (We say that knowing, full well, that a lot of people are very emotional already.)
We could spend the entirety of this article discussing simply Rickards’ message, but there is something beyond this greater of discussion: The impact of Felicity Smoak as a character, and her importance within this role.
From an acting level, what Rickards managed to do through seven years is prove that if you nail a character and get audiences/producers to fall in love with your work, you can achieve almost anything within this business. Felicity was never conceived at first to be the future wife of Oliver Queen; she was only meant as a recurring character in the first season, a smaller player within the DC Comics world. Yet, over time the producers responded to her popularity, making her into a series regular and then also eventually treating her on the level of one of the show’s most-important characters. Felicity is treated by many as a role model, a reminder that you don’t need super-powers or to spend countless hours in the gym (or on a salmon ladder) to be a hero. Characters like her had existed before, but her combination of humor and heart boosted her to a level few had ever seen.
Credit also must be given to the production staff for also being flexible to the demands and interests of the fans. So many times in this business there are people who get so beholden on their predetermined ideas that you lose something in the process. Maybe your original pitch in a writers’ room three or four months ago was great, but maybe an even better idea is presenting itself in the present that you did not expect. It’s okay to deviate from a plan and to put the extra work in. It makes the show better as a whole, and Felicity Smoak certainly made the world of Arrow better. Those decisions early on in the series’ run allowed for a greater sense of flexibility not just on Arrow, but the entire CW – DC Comics universe as a whole. It taught producers to follow the lead from their actors and their fans; sometimes, shows will find themselves through what happens the day of shooting.
Kudos to Rickards, the producers, and everyone who made Arrow. The show changed the game, and for Felicity, she is on equal footing.
If you missed it…
Check out what the end of Arrow could mean for The Flash and Supergirl at the link here. Meanwhile, let us know your thoughts on both Rickards’ message and Felicity’s impact below!